Scientists and engineers have looked to nature for their inspiration for centuries. The field of biomimetics uses ideas from nature to solve complex human challenges. Synthetic biology, a more recent concept…

People who attribute mental illness to brain disease or genes tend to blame affected people less, but see them as more hopeless and dangerous.
lauren rushing/FlickrJuly 8, 2014

Depression, schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions are increasingly linked to abnormalities in the brain and in our genes. Many professionals believe these developments hold the key to better treatments…

How life came about from inanimate sets of chemicals is still a mystery. While we may never be certain which chemicals existed on prebiotic Earth, we can study the biomolecules we have today to give us…

Many therapeutic drugs and toxins affect us without us knowing exactly how. We know, for example, that Epilim, or sodium valproate, one of the most highly prescribed medicines for epilepsy can prevent…